Kimchi & Baguette? Sharing My Korean Culture in France!
Kimchi is the staple in a Korean meal. Baguette is the staple in a French meal. When you add the two together, what do you get? The meal my mom and I cooked for my host family! Here’s the process and result of cooking a Korean meal for a house of only French people:
Since the beginning of the year when I told my host family that my mom would be flying to France over the holidays, the topic of making a Korean meal was always on the table. A couple weeks before my mom’s arrival in France, my mom and I decided on what we would make for my host family. We decided on mandu (Korean dumplings), kimchi fried rice, and bulgogi (thinly-sliced marinated beef).
Before my mom arrived I went shopping with my host parents at the Asian market and purchased the rice, kimchi, and frozen mandu. When my mom arrived in Rennes, we shopped for the beef and sauces together. In my mind, I felt some pressure making sure this meal was fantastic and delicious. I wanted it to be tasty and something different that my host family would try for the first time and love.
The cooking process was not limited to my mom and I, but my whole family chimed in to help! While we were out shopping for the ingredients, my host brother attempted to make rice in the rice cooker that my host family kindly bought for the event. Once we came home, the rice was not really ricing…the rice was a bit too soft and mushy. So we tried round two by cooking new rice on the stove. Then my mom and I marinated the beef. While the beef wasn’t the exact beef of bulgogi, it smelled amazing how bulgogi should smell; all the spices and sauces were on point. Then we started on the fried rice. The rice on the stove was also not ricing, too soft and mushy once again. Time was running out, so there was no time to try again in a third rice. That’s when we started getting creative. My mom, resourceful and never letting any minor problem get in her way, had my host sister put one of the rice batches in the freezer and the other rice batch rice outside to make the rices harden before getting fried. So yes the rice was outside in front of our front doorstep.😅 While that was happening my mom cooked the mandu on the stove and cooked some of the kimchi for the rice, leaving the other have to eat cold as a banchan, or side dish. To lend a helping hand, my host parents boiled the broccoli on a food processor thing that can boil food.🧐 When it was time to cook the rice, the rice was still a bit mushy but it was better than before. Scared nothing would come together, everything did! We first served the mandu as an appetizer while we cooked everything else, then we served the bulgogi, the kimchi fried rice, and the broccoli all at once.
The first bite of our homemade Korean meal wasn’t exactly how I remembered the meal tasting when my mom would make it in the US. The beef was not the correct beef, and the rice was not the same consistency as I remembered it. Even though the ingredients were a little flawed, the flavor was prominent and accurate! Since this was my host family’s first time having this Korean meal, they found it magnificent and fantastic! Korean food brings a kick of flavor into your mouth compared to French food, and they really enjoyed this change of taste. They especially liked the kimchi and the spiciness of the dish overall. Their positive response to the Korean food made me encouraged to want to share my Korean culture more in the future.
Usually after eating Korean food, my mom and I don’t have any dessert; we just finish off the meal. But in France there’s always cheese and bread after the main plate, and it doesn’t change with the Korean food! My host family partook in cheese and baguette, also using the baguette to soak the bulgogi juices left on their plates. This was a unique combination, Korean sauce and flavor all on a baguette…honestly sounds good! This unusual food paring was actually just a representation of our two cultures blending astoundingly and naturally in our now French-Korean household!
Whenever I eat bulgogi and kimchi fried rice from now on, I will always think of the adventure of creating and eating this meal with my mom and my host family. My family enjoyed the food so much that my host mom has started to buy mandu at the supermarket, incorporating it into our dinners! From this experience I’ve learned that it’s not degrading to share your culture, but it’s cool! Even though I’m on the other side of the world, I can still incorporate pieces of my identity to my life in France, not only learning new culture but contributing my own!🇰🇷🇫🇷
